preparedness the majority of our fellow-creatures every night lie down to sleep,— though liable to be awakened at any hour, by a cry of fire, by the shock of an earthquake, or by the last trumpet itself, for aught they can foresee. How picturesque and terrible are these two verses :—
"The shout of fire, a dreadful cry,
Impress'd each heart with deep dismay,
While the fierce blaze and reddening sky
Made midnight wear the face of day.
"The throng and terror who can speak ?
The various sounds that fill'd the air
The infant's wail, the mother's shriek,
The voice of blasphemy and prayer ! "
The compositions in the latter part of this Second Book are on the works of creation and the phenomena of nature, which belong rather to poetry than devotion ; and these being written more generally by Newton than Cowper, are less interesting than most others in the volume : feeble, though not unpleasing, they are evidently on themes chosen for the purpose of versifying and spiritualizing them— not forced upon the writer's attention by the impulses of his heart, the reveries of his mind, or the duties of his station. The last hymn, however, in this Book, is a more poetical example of Newton's skill in allegorizing than any of the former. It is rather remarkable, that one who had such " visions of the night," and instruction sealed upon his mind, even in youth, as his dream in the Mediterranean implies, should have succeeded so indifferently as he often does in his fancy-pieces and moral fictions. From this flight of imagination, the appearance of a second Bunyan might have been augured ; but Newton, though in many other respects much resembling the author of the 'Pilgrim's Progress,' was far behind him " in similitudes." The
